Deputy electricity minister jailed 7 years, ordered to pay $24 million

BAGHDAD — An Iraqi court has jailed Deputy Electricity Minister Khalid Ghazai Atiyah for seven years for illicit enrichment and ordered him to pay nearly 37 billion dinars (about $24 million at the official rate), the Federal Commission of Integrity said Sunday.

The Central Anti-Corruption Criminal Court ordered Atiyah, the ministry’s deputy minister for transmission and distribution, to return 8.24 billion dinars and $6.69 million in illicit gains, about $12 million in all. It fined him the same amount again, and the commission put the repayment and fine together at 36.81 billion dinars.

The court convicted him under Article 19(2) of the Integrity Commission and Illicit Gains Law No. 30 of 2011, as amended, the commission said. The fine was imposed under Article 19(4) of the same law.

The court also sentenced Atiyah to three years of rigorous detention for concealment, a charge the commission did not explain, and ruled that the more severe seven-year sentence applies. Rigorous detention is the heavier of the two forms of jail term in Iraq’s Penal Code, from three months to five years.

Judges upheld the seizure of Atiyah’s movable and immovable property and gave the commission the right to seek compensation for damages once the verdict becomes final. The commission did not say whether Atiyah still holds his post or whether he will appeal.

A security force affiliated with the commission arrested Atiyah on Aug. 14 as part of an investigation into suspected corruption and illicit enrichment among senior officials in Iraq’s electricity sector.

Two days later, the commission said investigators had found $5.8 million in cash, 1.175 billion dinars and seven gold bars in searches of several properties belonging to Atiyah. The dinar sum was about $890,000 at the time. Footage released by the commission showed bundles of money hidden beneath flooring and inside a false ceiling. The searches were carried out under a judicial warrant, and the seized assets were referred to an investigative judge.

The verdict is the latest in a run of corruption cases against Electricity Ministry officials under Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi’s anti-corruption campaign. In August, the same court jailed the director general of the state-owned General Company for Electric Power Production in the Middle Euphrates and his office director for six years each for taking bribes to release payments owed to a contractor.

Days later, it sentenced the Central Electricity Distribution Company’s financial affairs director to three years for illicit gains. He was ordered to repay 1.17 billion dinars (about $890,000 at the time) and $203,000, along with matching fines. The ruling also covered assets registered in his wife’s name, including shares in two properties and two vehicles.

In September, the court jailed Alaa Samir Rashid, the company’s director general, for seven years for illicit enrichment. Rashid was ordered to return 5.524 billion dinars (about $4.2 million at the time) and $5.539 million, plus fines matching those gains, and the seizure of his movable and immovable assets was upheld.

On Oct. 27, the commission said a court had ordered the detention of Muthanna’s former electricity distribution director and 12 employees over 6.15 billion dinars (about $4.7 million at the time) spent in 2024 on electrical equipment, much of it never used or installed. The commission said officials had manipulated measurement units and purchase requests to order as much equipment as possible.

On Nov. 6, the commission said three officials at a state-owned electricity transmission company in Maysan had been detained. They are suspected of keeping 390 million dinars (about $260,000 at the official rate) in pension contributions deducted from contract employees’ pay since 2019, instead of passing the money on to the Retirement and Social Security Department.

The cases follow a summer in which Iraq’s grid covered less than half of peak demand, by the Electricity Ministry’s own figures, and protests over power supply spread across the country.